


Downtime

by Kaoru_chibimaster



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post-Time Skip, Pre-Nibelheim Incident (Compilation of FFVII)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:15:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29395368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaoru_chibimaster/pseuds/Kaoru_chibimaster
Summary: Back to home base from a mission and ready to snuggle up with his favorite infantryman. Even if said infantryman was feeling a little sick...
Relationships: Zack Fair/Cloud Strife
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	Downtime

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fireborn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fireborn/gifts).



> A little late, but happy birthday!! I hope you enjoy this word vomit of pure fluff XD

“Say, Kunsel?”

“If you’re about to ask me for the millionth time if Strife is back from his recon, then I’m about to chuck a Cure materia right at your forehead.”

_Okay_ , never mind then. Besides, Zack didn’t really need to ask. He knew Cloud was back in Midgar from his “recon” in the Mythril Mines. Really, it was just a clean-up job; the miners were being harassed by monsters, and leaving the mines put them at the mercy of a Zolom, so they’d been trapped between a rock and a hard place for a few weeks as a result. ShinRa only sent out a response team so soon because their profits were suffering. They didn’t even want it to look like they were helping, because according to Cloud, they were “scouting the area”. That way if an _accident_ happened, ShinRa didn’t have to pay for it because it “wasn’t their fault if one of the infantrymen made his own decision to engage”.

Typical.

Unfortunately, there was nothing Zack could do about that glaring company issue. Instead, he focused his attention on the hope that Cloud came back unscathed and not _too_ barfy from motion sickness. On top of being cramped in an elevator for fifty floors. Considering how the latter was the situation Zack was currently in, he could understand the feeling.

Good thing Public Security was one floor above SOLDIER or Zack would have way less of an excuse to travel up all these floors just to see one trooper.

One trooper he _really_ wanted to see.

“You sure you can’t just—”

_Ding_.

“Aaand that’s the forty-ninth floor,” Kunsel interrupted. Zack was still a little dumbfounded at the “ding” noise he’d just made, blinking rapidly as the elevator slowed to a stop. “For the record, Strife’s squad got back to the building at around 1900, so…”

With that, Kunsel pressed the button to the fiftieth floor before slipping through the open doors.

“I don’t think you need me around for your smooch session with Strife.”

A laugh slipped through Zack’s lips at that, followed by a teasing smile.

“You’re technically not supposed to know that.” Of course, Zack had told Kunsel himself, but it wasn’t exactly common knowledge amongst their coworkers. Those who figured it out along the way tended to keep quiet.

“I’m technically not supposed to know a lot of things,” Kunsel grinned, waving just as the elevator doors closed.

Zack crossed his arms and waited for the short trip to the next floor up. There wouldn’t really be any smooch sessions, at least not any time soon, if his prediction of Cloud’s physical state was correct…which he knew it was. This happened every time they put him in a truck. Every single time. It was a wonder Cloud hadn’t volunteered to walk all the way to the Chocobo Ranch and back.

Actually, he might’ve. Zack couldn’t say for sure.

Either way, it clearly hadn’t worked out. If what Kunsel said was true, and Zack certainly believed that it was, then he got back barely half an hour ago. No way he could’ve walked back that fast.

And to spend that whole time dizzy and nauseated… Yeah, Zack wasn’t focusing on anything else until he made sure Cloud was alright. It wasn’t the most serious thing in the world, but in this building it was every soldier for himself. No one else would look after him once he’d been dumped into his room; hell, his captain might’ve even chewed him out for something he couldn’t control. God help him if Heidegger had caught wind of a motion sick trooper. Just that thought had his feet moving faster, tapping against the tile in a quick rhythm as he ignored the awed stares of various infantrymen milling about the lounge or walking the halls of the personal quarters.

He came to a stop at room 5007, barely even pausing for a breath before turning the doorknob and letting himself in.

There Cloud was. Laid out across his tiny cot, half-dressed in a t-shirt and uniform pants, face mashed into the mattress after his pillow had somehow ended up on the floor. He was alone, thankfully, with the roommate nowhere to be found. Left in quiet peace with the blinds closed, leaving only slivers of orange light filtering through them, and the ambient popping of that old, rusted radiator underneath it. For the best, really. Apparently that motion sickness gave him some serious headaches.

It certainly seemed like it what with how he sounded like a wounded animal over there on that bed. Zack was sure anyone else would write it off as your typical sixteen-year-old drama, but really he knew better. His poor baby was in _pain_ ; best Zack make himself useful, then.

“Hey,” he whispered, unsure if Cloud could even hear him over the sounds of his own quiet groans.

Miraculously, he answered.

“Zack…?” Cloud croaked. He peeked up from where his face had been pressed into the mattress, eyes bleary and face white. Definitely still sick, it seemed.

Zack was careful as he stepped over discarded boots and uniform articles, slowly sinking onto the bed so as to not jostle Cloud, and patting him gently on his back. It most likely didn’t help too much, and really all Cloud needed was a little time, and probably some water, to get over it. But the tiny smile that formed on Cloud’s lips and the grateful gleam that brought life back into his eyes told Zack the gesture was appreciated, nonetheless. At least it felt like he was doing something, which was better than standing in the doorway like an idiot and waiting apprehensively for Cloud to chuck his lunch back up. If he even ate at all…

“I’d ask how you were feeling, but unfortunately you look like shit enough for me to not bother,” he chuckled, voice a little louder now as he got comfortable. Still quiet enough not to bother Cloud, but no longer the scared whisper he’d started off with.

“Wow, that makes me feel a whole lot better,” Cloud snorted, his eyes rolling with humor despite his words. Zack couldn’t help smiling in response. Beneath the gritty, labored quality, there was still that spunky snark flavored with a hint of his backwater accent. It hung tight despite Cloud having lived in Midgar for two years now, and was as cute as ever. In Zack’s opinion at least.

“I’m just telling it like it is…” Zack trailed off. Really, it looked like the worst of it had passed, as his gaze swept over Cloud once more. He was probably more tired than anything, mixed with lingering vertigo and the likelihood of overexertion at the hands of his unit’s captain. Infantrymen really got worked to the bone, especially for how relatively little they were compensated. Yeah, Cloud was making more than your average small business owner in the slums, but it wasn’t exactly enough to make up for this sort of fatigue. Even as he slowly started to sit up, holding a hand up to stop Zack from helping, it was with shaky arms and an exhausted huff.

There was more than motion sickness going on there. Though, from the way he nearly tipped over, grimacing in discomfort, the motion sickness was still a big part of it.

“Alright, c’mere,” Zack sighed, arms held out expectantly. Cloud’s responding overdramatic groan prompted an amused snicker, and his hug was met with a tired slump and a face pressed into his chest. He didn’t so much mind that Cloud didn’t hug him back. It was enough to wrap his own arms around his very fatigued, very deserving-of-cuddles boyfriend.

“I’ll take care of you until you feel better,” he grinned into Cloud’s hair. Rubbing small circles over his back with one hand while the other kept a tight hold around his waist.

“It’s not even gonna last that long,” Cloud’s muffled voice replied. Not that it mattered. Yeah, the motion sickness would last a short while and then Cloud would get over it and the room would stop spinning, but that didn’t mean Zack couldn’t snuggle him up a little along the way.

“We’ll pretend it does anyway,” he shrugged, pressing a kiss against yellow-blond spikes. “If it gets late enough, I might get away with not reporting back.”

Though Zack wasn’t sure if anyone even cared whether he did or didn’t at this point. SOLDIER was kind of a mess right now, and a lot of attention had diverted to Public Security and the Turks to hold things together these days.

“I’d tell you to do your job, but I have a feeling that’ll be ignored,” Cloud chuckled. A welcome sound considering the sorry state he was left in, and hopefully a sign that he wasn’t letting that get him down.

Though not feeling dizzy and sick would probably help.

“ _This_ is my job right now—”

“Is not, you slacker.”

“—and I’m gonna perform it to the best of my abilities. That’s the sort of thing heroes do, y’know,” Zack asserted in as much of a no-nonsense tone as he could muster. Despite the tiny chuckle that had slipped in anyway.

“…Wow.”

With that, he kicked off his own boots and pulled his legs up fully on the bed, thankful that his pants weren’t covered in dirt or blood. It’d been an easy, clean mission and he’d barely broken a sweat. Besides, these little “beds” were terrible and he doubted Cloud cared that much how he was dressed in it. It wasn’t like he wasn’t still wearing his own fatigues too. Mostly.

“We’re seriously just gonna lay around in here all day?”

“I’d stay here all night if your roomie wasn’t coming back,” Zack grinned. He sorta hoped the roomie wasn’t coming back.

“I’m pretty sure he’s not. I think he’s bunking at his girlfriend’s.”

Well shit, ask and ye shall receive.

“Yup. Staying the night, then.”

A flick met his shoulder. Light and playful, and accompanied with a small laugh.

“Where am I going if you’re sleeping in my bed, then?” Cloud asked, still sitting up from where he’d scooted after Zack made himself comfortable. All squished against the wall, which simply wouldn’t do.

He didn’t protest when gloved fingers wrapped around his forearm and pulled him down until he was laid out on top of Zack. Judging by the resigned roll of his eyes and the lack of resistance, he probably expected it.

No one said the cuddles had to stop.

“Problem solved. Aren’t I good at this?”

“Nah, you’re just a dork.”

_Whatever_. He liked it.

“I’ll be whatever you want me to be as long as you’re feeling better,” Zack said. He meant it. Other things could wait. He’d been out of Midgar for days and Cloud’s situation wasn’t exactly far off. Public security on clean-up detail wasn’t exactly the safest job to be saddled with. They both needed some time to rest, and while Cloud had a point in that his residual motion sickness wouldn’t last very long, he still deserved a break. Their jobs be damned, Zack was 1st Class now and that held a lot of sway. He’d gladly use it to earn himself and his boyfriend some R&R.

Hell, President Shinra himself could come out of his office and fight Zack on it if he had a problem with it. He wasn’t budging from this spot any time soon.

It really, _really_ helped that the roommie wasn’t coming back tonight.

The gloves came off next, dumped on the floor next to Zack’s boots, just so that he could untuck Cloud’s shirt and slip his fingers under the fabric. Just to feel the warmth of his skin. The other hand slid up to card through his hair, slow and relaxed in such a way that he was sure he was lulling Cloud to sleep.

Good. He could use it.

“I know what you’re trying to do,” Cloud accused him tiredly, barely intelligible through the yawn that followed.

“I’m trying to snuggle you. Shut up and go to sleep. Try to feel better,” Zack urged back. They’d worry about food and showers later. Reports and duties could be handled the next day.

Ha. He could almost hear Angeal’s voice in his head, telling him off for being “lazy”. That wasn’t it, though. Zack just wanted to hold onto this. This feeling right here. Tucked away from the rest of the world for the chance at something resembling normalcy. He hadn’t had that since home. He doubted Cloud had either. He needed this too, Zack would bet.

“I already do.”

His voice was muffled, and it took a moment for Zack to process what he said.

“Huh?”

“I already do feel better,” Cloud repeated. His hands gripped into the fabric of Zack’s shirt, and his face was buried into the collar of it, despite the smell of sweat and smog that likely clung to it. Despite his earlier protests too. Body snug against Zack’s and breathing calm. He practically melted into Zack’s embrace.

So, Cloud enjoyed the snuggles just as much, huh? Adorable.

“Awww—”

“ _Stop_.”


End file.
